Latest News

News Release
November 24, 2020

UBCIC Supports Call for ABC Network to Acknowledge and Address MMIWG Crisis

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – November 24, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) joins Indigenous organizations and Tribal Leaders who are calling on the ABC Network to address and rectify its incomplete depiction of violence against women and girls in its primetime thriller Big Sky. Despite being set in Montana, the show fails to acknowledge that the disproportionate majority of missing and murdered women and girls there are Indigenous.

Statement
November 20, 2020

UBCIC Observes the Transgender Day of Remembrance

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – November 20, 2020) Today the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) observes the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) and remembers the transgender lives lost to and deeply damaged by transphobia, violence, hate, and prejudice. UBCIC stands in solidarity with Indigenous and non-Indigenous transgender and gender-diverse communities whose immense strength and resilience continues to inspire Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island in their fight for dignity and equality.

News Release 
November 6, 2020

FNLC Fully Supports Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation’s Road Restrictions in Response to Decades of Exploitation by Western Forest Products

(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) – The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) stands with the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) who are currently restricting access to a portion of Highway 28 that trespasses upon Ahaminiquus Indian Reserve Number 12, between Gold River and its port. The MMFN has been forced to impose this restriction in response to Western Forest Products Inc.’s (WFP) ongoing use of their lands without consent and the tactics WFP have employed to avoid compensating the MMFN for the use of their road for over 20 years.

News Release
October 27, 2020

UBCIC Congratulates NDP for their Historic Win and Calls for Pivotal Action to Advance Indigenous Title and Rights     

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 27, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) congratulates Premier John Horgan and the NDP for securing a historic victory on election night that will see them form a majority NDP government for the first time in over 20 years, and is calling for immediate joint action on Indigenous priorities.

News Release
October 22, 2020

UBCIC Statement on Lobster Fishery and RCMP Inaction to Protect the Mi’kmaq from Violence

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 22, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is enraged about the blatant illegality of the RCMP indifference to violence against the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia.  The failure to act to keep the peace and secure the rights and safety of the Mi’kmaq people is a clear dereliction of duty.  

News Release
October 21, 2020

Federal Government’s Ties to Fish Farm Industry and Monopoly on Research Hastening Demise of Wild Salmon

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 21, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is demanding transparency and accountability from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) regarding their continued jeopardization of wild salmon stocks. Following the DFO’s recent announcement that open-net pen farms in BC’s Discovery Islands pose a minimal risk to wild salmon, Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders, head of the DFO’s molecular genetics laboratory, has stated that the DFO remains beholden to the open-net farm industry, underplaying the risks to wild salmon in order to hold aloft a controversial industry.

Statement 

October 15, 2020

FNLC stands with the Mi’kmaq and calls on Federal Government, Government of Nova Scotia and the RCMP  to step in and stop the racist violence

(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) The First Nations Leadership Council (a collaborative working relationship between BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit and Union of BC Indian Chiefs – [FNLC]) strongly denounces the abhorrent violence and disregard for the law by non-indigenous protesters who have disrupted and interfered with the legal and constitutionally protected rights of the Mi’kmaq people. Inciting hostility and undermining the Mi’kmaq right to earn a moderate living from fishing, they have attempted to hinder and deny the Nation’s fishing activities, including their Atlantic lobster fishery in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia for the past several weeks.

Statement
October 15, 2020

Violence Must Not Threaten the Safety and Rights of Land Defenders and Matriarchs Holding Ceremony and Protecting the Sacred Wedzin Kwa Headwaters

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 15, 2020) On October 13, 2020, Coastal GasLink called in the RCMP to remove a group of Wet’suwet’en women and community members who are holding ceremony at a proposed drill site for Coastal Gaslink’s pipeline.